CHARLESTON, W.V. — As of Monday afternoon, Appalachian Power Company reports that just under 100,000 customers in their three-state service area are without power due to Winter Storm Blair, including over 42,000 in the Mountain State.
Appalachian Power Company spokesperson Debby Pannell says the bulk of the reported outages are coming from the southwestern part of the state.
“It looks like the majority of our outages are in Kanawha, Lincoln, Mercer, and Raleigh County right now,” Pannell said on MetroNews’ “Talkline’ this morning.
Those four counties currently make up 29,000 of the 42,000 without power in West Virginia.
Pannell says the weight from the overnight ice is normally what causes the most amount of problems.
“What is typical in any ice storm is that the ice weighs down the trees, the trees then fall into the lines, then we have the damage we’re seeing today,” Pannell said.
Appalachian Power currently has 5,500 field workers dedicated to service restoration, and Pannell confirmed that 400 additional line mechanics and 200 additional support personnel were brought in before the storm hit.
“It’s all hands on deck with this power outage,” Pannell said. “From the field perspective, the first step is to get assessors into the field. They are looking at damage, determining what is needed to make repairs, and then from there, we’ll be able to provide to our customers an estimated restoration time and our field workers will be able to start working on those repairs to get our customers restored as quickly and safely as possible.”
Pannell says navigation for Appalachian Power workers in rural areas of the state has been a struggle.
“We have seen a lot of icy roads, trees down, so navigation is a little bit difficult,” Pannell said. “You have to remember, a lot of our work is off the beaten path. It’s not necessarily right on the side of the road. Our workers need to not only drive to the location, but then be able to access it by foot as well, so it does make for some treacherous conditions sometimes.”
Appalachian Power has urged residents to do a couple of things if they have a power outage, including staying away from any downed power lines until workers arrive. Pannell says customers should be careful with household items that are large users of power.
“When we try to restore service, because it’s so cold, everything comes up at once on the circuit,” Pannell said. “What we’re asking customers to do is turn off those larger users of power. When service is restored, wait 15 minutes before you turn them back on. That will help tremendously.”